CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS)—Being able to read and write is a really
great thing, Pope Benedict XVI told about 400 elementary school
children.

Learning those skills, "we can know what others think, read newspapers
and books; we can know what was written 2,000 years ago or even longer
ago," but even better, we can read the Bible, he told the children Sept.
23.

During the special evening audience in the courtyard of the papal summer
villa, the pope met the students from the Paul VI Pontifical School, an
elementary school in Castel Gandolfo staffed by sisters on Vatican
property, but funded by the Italian government.

The 83-year-old Pope Benedict told the kids, "I started going to school 77 years ago."

"It was in a tiny town of 300 souls, a bit 'beyond the moon,'" he said,
translating into Italian the German saying for a town in the middle of
nowhere.

Despite the school's remote location, "we learned the essentials. We
especially learned to read and write, and I think it's a great thing to
be able to read and write," he said.

"Here's something extraordinary: God wrote a book, that is, he spoke to
us humans and found people who wrote the book with the word of God," the
pope explained. "Reading it, we, too, can read what God has to say to
us."

The pope also said that school is a great place to make friends.

But a Christian's first best friend should be Jesus, "who is everyone's friend and really shows us the path of life," he said.